Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we 

 can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the 

 best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond. — Hypatia. 



The Guide to Nature. 



EDUCATION AND RECREATION 



Vol. I 



NOVEMBER, 1908 



No. 8 





ITfig OUTDOOR WoRLD 



Vacation Days in Yosemite's Wonderland 



BY MISS M. FLORENCE HAY, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. 



HEN the winter snows fal- 

 ling and drifting over moun- 

 tain bluff and valley mys- 

 teriously robe the 



great 

 Yosemite in its winter garb 

 of frost and ice and frozen 

 waterfalls few visitors are 

 there, but when the early 

 spring sun melting the accumulated 

 snow again given more active life to the 

 icy falls with their fairy fretwork of 

 frost and hanging icicles the "madden- 

 ing crowd" begins its yearly pilgrimage 

 to this marvelous valley. 



By June the snows have all receded to 

 the higher peaks and plateaus, the ice 

 cones are gone, the trees have again 

 shaken their mantles of frost and snow 

 and the valley sings of spring and birds 

 and running water. The wild, wonder- 

 ful winter with its few loving visitors 

 has passed. Tourists begin to come. 



Hitherto many were deterred from 

 taking this trip but now the long, ard- 

 uous, winding journey over interminable, 

 hot, dusty foothill stage roads and rough, 

 winding mountain grades has been done 

 away with. A short, direct route places 

 this wonderland of magnificent scenery 

 within easy reach. The new Yosemite 

 Valley Railroad takes you up to the very 

 edge of the park line at El Portal, leav- 

 ing only a little over fourteen miles of 

 delightful staging to place you in the 

 heart of the valley. At Merced you leave 

 the Southern Pacific and monotonous 

 stretches of the great San Joaquin Val- 

 ley. Here the new line trends eastward 

 through orte of the most picturesque 

 canon roads in the world. The yellow 

 plains are soon left behind. At first the 

 road winds in and out among the still 

 rolling hills, but before long you com- 

 mence to climb more perceptibly. The 



Copyright 1908 by The Agassiz Association, Stamford, Conn. 



